Usain Bolt

This weekend will be a big one for for track and field in Jamaica with the staging of the fourth renewal of the Jamaica International Invitational meet. A number of world class stars, including Jamaica's 2004 Olympic 200 metres Olympic gold medallist and 2007 world 100m champion Veronica Campbell-Brown, double world champion Tyson Gay, Olympic 400m relay gold medallist, Jamaican-born Sanya Richards, national men's 200m record holder and World Championships silver medallist Usain Bolt will grace the track at the National Stadium.

The meet has never failed to produce performances out of the top drawer and action on the track is expected to be hot. Fans can expect more than a few world leading times in events such as the men's 200m where Gay should win unchallenged and the women's 200m in which Campbell-Brown will, no doubt, be looking to post a good time and send a signal to American Allyson Felix, the woman she defeated at last year's World Championships in Osaka, Japan.

The men's 100m where Jamaica's national record holder at 200m, Usain Bolt, meets American Wallace Spearmon, his long-time rival over the half-lap distance, should be one of the most interesting events on the programme.

This year's world-leading 100m time is 10.00 seconds, held jointly by Trinidad and Tobago's Richard Thompson and Churandy Martina of the Netherlands Antilles. Spearmon's personal best is 9.96, a time he set in Shanghai, China last year, while Bolt clocked 10.03 in Spanish Town in mid-March to equal his personal best.

Psychological edge

Bolt will want a supreme performance on Saturday, not only to gain the psychological edge over Spearmon ahead of 200m battles later this year, but also to impress the Jamaican selectors early as he is seeking a place on the sprint relay team at the Beijing Olympics. Both could go below ten seconds on Saturday if pushed by 2003 world 100m champion Kim Collins of St. Kitts and American Darvis Patton who has always performed well at the National Stadium.

Another athlete who will be seeking to perform with distinction on Saturday is Richards. In an interview published in yesterday's Star Sports, Richards expressed a desire to run 48 seconds consistently this year.

While it is unlikely that she will get to that level so early in the season she could, if pushed by Jamaica's World Championships bronze medalist Novlene Williams, beat her own world leading time of 50.47.

The women's 400m hurdles has been devalued with the announced withdrawal of Jamaica's Melaine Walker but American Lashinda Demus, with a personal best of 53.02, is a class act and good enough to beat this year's world leading time of 54.97 by compatriot Tiffany Williams.

The National Stadium is also an arena which holds fond memories for Demus as it was there that she won the World Junior 400m hurdles title in 2002 clocking 54.70.